An elderly woman came up to the reference desk at the Sulzer Regional Library one day, asking how to join the Friends of Sulzer. Her reason: concern over the drastic “weeding” that Chicago Public Library (CPL) administration imposed upon the library.
“They’ve probably gotten rid of just about everything I’ve ever checked out,” the woman said in a worried tone.
The weeding at Sulzer Regional Library—a sore point for citizens and staffers—continues, but some citizens have decided to try to halt it.
On Tuesday, Sept. 18, the Friends of Sulzer and other parties filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to temporarily halt the removal of books. With the complaint, the group also filed for a preliminary injunction to not only halt the weeding, but to force the CPL Commission to call a public meeting “at which it makes known its intentions regarding Sulzer.”
The legal actions were filed on behalf of the plaintiffs by James R. Fennerty & Associates, L.L.C. in the Chancery Division of the Cook County Circuit Court. The plaintiffs argued that “the number of books already removed, coupled with Defendant’s evident intention to remove considerably more books, renders what Defendant terms a ‘weeding process’ in effect a de facto downsizing of Sulzer, from a regional library to a branch library.”
The complaint also stated that, as the CPL has provided no data or estimates of the number of books it plans to remove from Sulzer, let alone conduct a public meeting regarding the book removal, its conduct violates Illinois’ Open Meetings Act and sections 1-3 of the Local Library Act—which stipulates that a public library board must “render the use of the library of the greatest benefit to the greatest number of residents and taxpayers.”
On Friday, Sept. 14, Sulzer staffers who object to the administration’s actions reported that they saw another 80 boxes of books being set out in back of the library to be carried away. One staffer said they were being forced to remove about 1000 books a day.
According to CPL administrators, some of the books will be disposed of in landfills, others sold in a secondhand bookstore, and others distributed to branch libraries. Nevertheless, Commissioner Dempsey insists that Sulzer is not being downsized.
A Sulzer staffer already upset by the unprecedented weeding said that another order had recently come down from Dempsey banning all donations to Sulzer and mandating that all donated materials currently in its collection be removed and disposed of.
“We’ve been ordered to throw all gifts out,” the source said. “The staff has been pulling them and putting them in the book sale.” The source stressed that many donated books were indeed obsolete or in poor condition. “But today we just got some new books—2000 and 2001 bestsellers,” the staffer said. “I had to take those and put them in the book sale.”
Again, neither Dempsey nor her press secretary would respond to questions from Inside regarding the weeding, the alleged ban on donations, or other Sulzer-related matters. For nearly a month and a half, regular telephone calls, e-mails and faxes to Dempsey and Press Secretary Margot Burke have gone unanswered.
Library staffers kept working
during day of terror
Some Chicago Public Library employees, already upset about many policies and statements of Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey, are complaining about one more Dempsey decision: the decision to keep staffers at the Harold Washington Library Center working even as many other Loop buildings were being evacuated in the wake of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
An anonymous HWLC staffer claimed that many staff members there were “in a rage” over Dempsey’s actions. “We were left stranded, with no guidelines,” the staffer complained. “We felt like sitting ducks.” The staffer also said it was a waste of money to keep the 10-floor library open with no practically patrons visiting. The central library, not far from the evacuated Sears Tower, was a “tomb ... During the three hours that I was [here], not one patron asked for service.” A reference librarian reported receiving no calls for reference assistance all day.
The HWLC did close early that day—at 5 p.m. instead of at the normal 7 p.m.
Dempsey herself didn’t stay all day, but left at about 10 a.m. for the city’s 911 Center on the Near West Side, just after the news broke of a fourth hijacked plane crashing in Pennsylvania. Staffers were warned in an e-mail memo that if they left the building, they would not be paid for the remaining hours of that day.
The next day, Wednesday, Sept. 12, Dempsey sent a memo to all CPL staff explaining that she had spent the past two days at the city’s 911 Center with Mayor Daley, other city department heads, and state and federal officials “[coordinating] operations and [collecting] information necessary to assess the City’s readiness to respond to the terrible events of this week.”
A Chicago Public Library source staffer called the libraries in other major libraries to find what they had done. She said the Cleveland library system, located in that city’s downtown area, closed at 11 a.m. for “staff security,” and Philadelphia’s closed at noon at the order of the city’s mayor. Boston’s libraries closed too, the source said.
An e-mail memo issued by First Deputy Commissioner Karen Danczak Lyons at 1:05 p.m. on Sept. 11 informed the HWLC staff: “As an extra security measure, until further notice, all staff are required to wear their employee identification badge while in library facilities. Staff are instructed to challenge any person observed in a staff area who is not wearing an employees identification badge and to notify security personnel immediately.”
One CPL source commented: “In the face of national security, this is about all that the administration can come up with to reassure the staff of the Chicago Public Library—not once word of concern about our safety.
“Presumably [Dempsey’s] life is more valuable than anyone else’s,” the source commented. “As you have mentioned before, at the CPL Animal Farm, some lives are more equal than others.”
All CPL sources spoke under condition of anonymity out of fear for their jobs.
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